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“Sorry for the Stink……

What is the refinishing procedure when your vintage furniture reeks?…. and that was my obstacle on this project! Man, this is not talked about enough and needs to be! This is the second piece of furniture in the past few years that I have refinished and have found myself gagging every time I try to sand it. We all want those heirloom pieces that are stuck in your grandma’s basement that is just waiting for a makeover. Of course, because they are solid wood! The problem is, those basements can be wet, musty, dank and when combined with wonderful blends of pet odors, the mix can result in an OH SO infamous smell. HAHA. Don’t forget, that generation smoked heavily inside their homes which can also stick to furniture. I understand smoke smell may not bother everyone, however WILDanimal may! I know I am NOT the only one who has experienced this!!! Half of you sauntered onto my website just because you SECRETLY googled how to get the putrid stink out of your furniture. HAHA. Its’s ugly!!!!! When you see a thousand furniture makeovers online with pretty tutorials, the computer hides the NASTY!

THE BEFORE-Without my artistic fumes 🙂

This little number that I found on the side of the road in the pouring rain is not an antique heirloom. However, it was solid wood with some nice wood work. I saw it and jumped. The house had been in a foreclosed state. The air-conditioning probably hadn’t been on in a couple of years resulting in the smell that had built up. Air conditioning is almost necessary here because it gets extremely humid and is necessary to dry everything out when the humidity gets high. Our air conditioning broke last year and over the course of a week, I started smelling some of the smoke smell coming from our antique rugs and antique furniture handed down from the grandparents. That was one week! And Yes- the rugs have been professionally cleaned. Our basement also starts to smell musty if our dehumidifier stops running which I notice immediately after coming home from vacation. This house where I got this piece of furniture sat empty for a while. Without any movement in the house, nor air conditioning, nor a running dehumidifier, any odor that may have been once subtle must have become MAGNIFIED by the time I came along:)

They were taking out the furniture and breaking it apart by the road and dumping it in a dumpster. Little innocent me couldn’t help myself being slightly distracted while driving in the rain …..hit the brakes and asked politely…”Do you mind if I take a look before you break it all up.” The workers said “Sure take anything!” It was mostly junky furniture, but I found this one…..and knew I could make it great again!!…….uh yeah.. Little did I know I would have to hose myself down 3 times a day just to be able to re-do this thing! Regardless, I saved it from the junkyard. YEAH…. Now you are wondering why:)

The interesting thing is I actually had no idea this piece of furniture smelled so bad when I got it. It was raining heavily which masked some odors:) I always think…ah, even if it’s a little musty, I’ve done it before, it’s nothing that I can’t handle! Though, it really wasn’t until the sanding process began that the pet odors started coming through. My friend who owns multiple animals came over and agreed the house most likely had a couple of cats, dogs….. ferrets…who knows? I thought I was extra sensitive to it but later after I had been sanding, Ed turned on his shop vac ………..I could hear him yelling. ‘OH God….WHAT IS THAT?’ haha. I laughed a little too hard! Now, I am really hoping I didn’t ruin his shop-vac!

Here are my extra steps to get this piece of furniture CLEANED, SANDED, SANITIZED, DEODORIZED and SEALED up! :

I stopped the sanding process completely because I couldn’t take it! I sprayed every nook and crannie with ODOBAN and then wiped it down to clean it. I sprayed an extra 2 or 3 times on the furniture and let it air-dry in the sun. You want the spray to seep into the wood.

ODOBAN

Ed got this product at ACE hardware. You can probably find it online. The lady at the hardware store told him that they use this deodorizer and disinfectant at the veterinary offices because the animal smell gets potent. The veterinarian that uses it was very pleased with the product. So……here we are, a product that can also be used to deodorize those stinky antiques! This product HELPED and made continuing the sanding process bearable.

I bought a VAPOR MASK!!! This is a must when dealing with disgusting odors!! After the project, I planned to throw out the exchangeable filters!

VAPORMASK: My favorite accessory

Surprise! Smile! Oh wait, I couldn’t!!

I resumed SANDING OUTSIDE in my backyard. I started with 120 grit sandpaper. I sanded inside every drawer cavity, underneath the dresser, the back of the dresser and of course all of the nice details were all sanded down. I wanted all the stinky layers of wood GONE!!

Continued Sanding

My Sanding Tools

Sanding forms for all the details

I sanded out the inside of the drawers with my orbital sander. I sanded underneath the drawers, all four walls of the inside and outside of the drawers. I sanded any wood I could see:)

I cleaned the drawers after sanding and used a SPRAY SHELLAC all over the drawers including the inside, walls, and underneath. On the back of the can it says Shellac will kill odors seeping from wood ! YAY! I just didn’t shellac the drawer fronts because I knew I had more work there.

Shellac: pic from Home Depot website

SPRAY SHELLAC everywhere inside and outside of the drawers

I put 4 coats of KILZ MAX primer on the entire dresser except for the shellac’ed drawers. KILZ MAX also claims to kill odors! I could have applied KILZ all over the drawers as well but I didn’t want the drawers sticking or the paint rubbing off or sticking as the drawers get moved back and forth. I applied the primer over the entire dresser(including the back and underneath) using our EARLEX spray gun. Between each coat, I sanded with a 220 grit sandpaper. My sanding tools and forms were used each time just like in the above sanding pics….that being 4 times!!

Sprayed KILZ primer

I even sprayed KILZ MAX in the inside of the drawer cavities!!!! That was fun;) Check out how I messed up here!!!

too much tilt

Geez…only tilt if full! backspray here!

eye-level: serious back spray

eyes above… yay, no back spray

After disinfecting, shellac-ing, & KILZ-ing the pet odors dissipated. The dresser has a paint smell now. I can handle that any day compared to what I went through to just get this dresser up to the point where it could be painted.

Would I do this again? Every day I worked on this I asked myself why I was going to this level to save this hunk of junk! It wasn’t an antique, nor did it have excellent craftsmanship. It started to become more work than expected and more for me than a cute vintage dresser at that point. It became a challenge where I wanted to see if I could completely mask the ridiculous odors; and if it didn’t work…..hey, I could dump it in the end! The important point is that it can be done even as bad off as this dresser was! Yes, a lot of extra work went into this but when one has inherited a beautiful heirloom antique piece that stinks like the dickens, there is still hope:) That is what I wanted to see if I could share with you in the end. If this were to happen again…..I would make sure I really LOVED the piece of furniture and that it was WORTH saving!! I spent some serious time on this! On that note, finally with the primer on, it’s ready to be painted with some nice paint!

NOW that this dresser has been refreshed……I will NOT be saying …..” Yeah, sorry for the stink… it ain’t the trash, it’s the treasure!” 🙂

STILL WORKING ON IT; The drawer fronts have some additional work…. Missing, peeling and cracked veneer! Check out my next post on how we will fix that problem! Where is Mike Rowe on this one? ha!!! Mike Rowe….Row, Ro Ro….. Hello O. O. O. ?!!!! Dresser to be continued…

Reader Interactions

Comments

Hey Kathleen, great article! Stopping in from Vintage Charm to say hello. I know my readers could really use this info and I would like to invite you to my weekly Furniture party #fridaysfurniturefix to share your projects. Link ups are open all weekend, hope to see you there!

Thank you so much Brenda! Oh I will! I checked out your linky party and I will definitely join up. On your site correct? or is there a # party that I tweet to? I don’t understand hashtag parties as I do the linky parties. Let me know if that is right. I will link up this weekend….thanks so much for the invite:)

When I saw the picture at first I didn’t realize it was the dresser you refinished. Congratulations on the makeover and for seeing the beauty in this piece. Honestly I cannot believe someone would throw it away, so glad you saved and refinished this beauty.

Hi Leanna, thanks so much for stopping by. I know, it really has some pretty details!!! I liked it and wanted to save it the best I could even though it actually was a disaster. The final reveal picture is coming! I had a lot of work to clean up the broken veneer on the drawer fronts so in my next post I will address those issues. That picture was the before. It had been painted probably in the 60’s or 70’s. Thanks so much for your comment:)

LOL Kathleen, I love the way you described everything. Ah man, it must have been pretty intense, but it’s great to know that there are products out there that will kill odors. Pinning so I don’t have to try figure it all out if ever a come across a stinky dresser or something 😉

HAHAHA!!! YES it was!!!!!!! I wasn’t sure how people were going to react to this one but I was thinking it may be helpful to someone:) Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by, your comment and your pin!!! I will be posting the final reveal soon:)

Kathleen this was such a funny post. I feel for you really! Just reading the word sanding over and over gave me aches and pains. I can understand a good challenge but this one really takes the cake. After all of your dedication I’m sure you will be more than happy with it.

HAHAHA!! I’m glad you liked it:) We do joke about it at home a lot because it was such an ordeal. Luckily, I am past the tough part and is really a beautiful piece. Thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I had fun writing this!

You have some serious skills Kathleen! I can’t say that I ever heard of an old and musty odors killing primer paint (you can tell how many times a year I enter home improvement stores, lol). Pinning to have this tutorial handy!

I was very surprised too:) Each day I worked on it I was thinking….”There is no way- I may have to let this go!” Still up to the 3rd coat of primer the smell was still slightly evident. Finally it took a turn and that last thick coat did the trick along with the coats in the cavities. It was some project:)

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Hi there, I'm K. Rupp....an artsy type married to a DIY guy. K is for Kathleen and my husband is Ed. So......years ago when we got married, Kathleen + RUPP + Ed = KARUPPED! It has now evolved into this site! I'm so happy you are here! Read More…